Passport application among 15 e-services must be done online in Singapore from 2020

In its march towards the Smart Nation goal, applications for Singapore passports and NRICs will have to be done online as all paper forms will be phased out by 2020, announced the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) today.

“ICA has brought all its 15 electronic services (e-Services) into the MyICA portal and aims to achieve 100 per cent online applications for these services by 2020,” said ICA in a press release.

Besides passport and NRIC applications, these services include applications for long-term visit passes, re-entry permits, permanent residency and citizenship, and requests for birth or death extracts, application for student’s pass and others.

Applications for Singapore passports and NRICs will have to be done online as all paper forms will be phased out by 2020. Photo: Connected to India

MyICA is an integrated personalised portal where customers can access ICA’s e-Services on a secure electronic platform. With MyICA, members of the public only need to perform a single log-in every time, in order to enjoy all of ICA’s e-Services. In addition, payments for e-Services are consolidated, so that only a single e-payment is required for multiple transactions within the same log-in session.

In 2017, 88 per cent of more than 5.5 million applications were already submitted online. The majority of hardcopy applications were for passports and NRICs, and submitted at ICA building in person or mailed to ICA.

ICA has taken measures for the segments of the public who are not familiar with transacting online.

First-time users of MyICA can learn about its features and the e-Services available through an online tutorial.

To guide applicants who are not familiar with the process of applying for passports and NRICs online, a step-by-step video guide (in English and our national vernacular languages) will be progressively introduced on ICA’s website and Facebook page.

For applications by the elderly who may be less familiar with using the Internet, their family members and friends can apply on their behalf via MyICA.

In addition, applicants who do not have access to the Internet, or whose family or friends are unable to assist, can visit the eLobby at ICA Building and make use of the self-service kiosks to submit their applications. ICA Service Ambassadors will be on hand to help such applicants.

ICA will also make special arrangements to assist those who are unable to make a trip to ICA due to medical reasons. For example, those who are bedridden and are required to re-register for their NRIC can request for ICA to conduct the re-registration at their residence.

“The move towards 100 per cent online applications by 2020 supports Singapore’s Smart Nation goals. This will benefit both our customers and officers,” said ICA in the press release.

Members of the public can provide feedback on ICA's processes and services via the ePoll function of the MyICA app.